17 August 2024

By Göran R Buckhorn

At the Olympic Games in Paris, U.S. rower Nick Mead became historic not once but twice.

Michael Grady, Justin Best, Liam Corrigan and Nick Mead made history when they became Olympic champions in the four in Paris. It was the first time in 64 years since an American crew won the Olympic gold in the boat class.

It was at the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960 that American oarsmen Arthur Ayrault, Ted Nash, John Sayre and Rusty Wailes crossed the finish line as the first crew in what was then called the coxless four (there was also the boat class coxed four at this time).

In the Olympic rowing in Paris, the U.S. also took a bronze in the men’s eight.

Mead, 29, is from Strafford, Pennsylvania, and attended Princeton University, where he rowed in the Tigers’ 1 Varsity eight for three seasons, competing in the major regattas in the USA. He also raced in the Ladies’ Challenge Plate at the 2015 Henley Royal Regatta.

Nick Mead’s father Philip rowed at Princeton and his mother, Carolyn, and brother, Loren, both rowed at Penn.

Nick Mead also competed in the Tokyo Games, in the American eight that placed fourth in the final.

When it was time to pick the two flag bearers for the United States at the closing ceremony on Sunday, 11 August, Mead shared the honour with swimmer Katie Ledecky, who is the most decorated American female Olympian with nine Olympic gold medals (she has also won 21 World Championships).

Nick Mead was nominated by USRowing and he applied to the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOC) to become the U.S. co-flag bearer. HTBS has seen Mead’s application to USOC in which Mead among other things writes:

The night after winning Olympic Gold in Paris, I by chance met the descendants of Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympics. The Coubertin family reminded me of the founding principles of the Olympic movement – a celebration of the joy found in effort. They shared with me Coubertin’s motto: “The important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle, the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.” Having spent thousands of hours on the water with my teammates over the last 7 years, I cannot think of a more perfect embodiment of Coubertin’s ideal than the sport of rowing. Our sport is not nearly as popular as gymnastics, or swimming, or basketball, or track and field in the United States. There are no sponsorship deals in rowing. Many Americans could not describe the sport to you if you asked them. Nevertheless, we choose to struggle for the love of the sport and dedicate our lives to the struggle, and nothing is more essential to the Olympic spirit than that.

One could reflect that it is peculiar that among previous athletes carrying the American flag at the Olympic opening ceremonies and closing ceremonies, there has never been a rower despite all the Olympic gold medals the U.S. crews have won throughout the years.

Nick Mead was a worthy U.S. flag bearer at the closing ceremony in Paris.